No added seizure risk from childhood vaccine, study shows

A large new study has ruled out concerns that children 4 and older are at greater risk of seizures after getting a common measles-containing vaccine called MMRV.

The MMRV vaccine is given to children 4 and older. (Herald-Tribune archive)

The vaccine — which combines the shot for measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, with the vaccine for varicella, or chickenpox — is given to children in two steps, first as toddlers and then again between ages 4 and 6.

Several years ago, scientists found that 1-year-olds who were given the MMRV vaccine had double the risk of a febrile seizure, a brief convulsion touched off by a fever, compared with those who were given the MMR and chickenpox shots separately but on the same day. The findings raised concerns that children who got the combined shot later on might also be at greater risk of febrile seizures. But the new study, financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the journal Pediatrics, found that that was not the case.

Looking at more than 150,000 children who were vaccinated from 2000 to 2008, the researchers found that there was no increased risk of febrile seizures in older children who were given either the combined MMRV shot or the MMR and chickenpox vaccines separately.

After the earlier studies, the CDC recommended that parents opt for the separate MMR and chickenpox shots when immunizing younger children.

–Anahad O'Connor, New York Times

Last modified: April 16, 2012
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